Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1887-03-02

| TOT sneep. pnecp that arc olu anu ou'
of condition will improve surprisingly
on clover hay, and sometimes become
quito 1eshy.
Some of tho large mutton breeds OIL
sheep, such as Oxfords, often shear from
twelve to twenty pounds of wool, and
this fact, with their ability to attain very
heavy weights, should be strong in.
duccment to farmers to use rams of NUT
ton breeds for crossing on the native
ewes.
Turkeys arc capable of rapid digcs.
ton, and are always apparently hungry.
If allowed to forage they can be kept at
very small expense, but when kept in
confinement they consume more than
hens. When young and growing they
produce n carcass equivalent to the food
consumed
In trimming n hedge something else
should be considered as well as the mat
ter of cutting off the extra growth. A
proper shape should be given it. There
is nothing 90 attractive or ornamental as
a shapcly, well kept hedge, and it adds
value to the farm.
The Ohio agricultural college states as
the results Of experiments there in soil
ing cattle that half the number of
acres will feed the same amount of
stock and keep them in better condition
if the product be cut and placed before
them. Nevertheless soiling is not every
where prof table.
A Western New York farmer who buys
sheep from the West to fattcn in the fall,
says he last year made profit when his
ncighbors made nonc by buying split
and colorcd beans, which he fed with
corn, instead of an all corn ration. He
says two-ifths beans with corn, make
sheep thrive and fatten faster than full
rations of corn.
There is no necessity for expensive or
deliberately built poultry houses. All the
ornament that can be applied will
amount to nothing unless hens arc kept
warm. A poultry-house that is low at
the rear, and is so constructed as to ad-
nit Of as little loss of heat as possible,
with plenty Of light, will give better re.
suits than any other.
Save all the bones. They are valua.
Bile for fertilizers in any form. Even
when placed whole in the soil the roots
of plants will be sure to find them. If
broken in small pieces they will afford
more food to plants, and if finely ground
or dissolved in moistencd wood ashes or
suphuric acid arc rendered still more
available for the use of plants.
A Western farmer advises stringing
seed corn by tying the ears together with
husks in some place where the grain can
be saturated with coal smoke. The
odor, he says, repcls squirrels and
worms from eating the seed. The seed
comes up quicker, the plants grow moro
and ripcn several days
earlier than from the seed not so treated.
Where corn is left out in the stock
through the winter the greater part of
the value is lost. Rains and melting
SHOWS soak and drain the stalks of their
nutrimcnt, while inside the stock mice
pursue their ravages without fear Of
their numerous enemies. A family of
mice will easily destroy onc-quarter of
the value of the corn in stock through
the winter. This is 4 pretty heavy tax
to pay for delaying work that costs fully
rs much 10 do in the spring as it would
to do in its proper time in the fall.
One of the arguments in favor Of
-hrcshing corn is that it also shells it at
he same time. But it does this very i'm.
perfectly, as the corn is usually damp
when husked, and it is not possible for
wen the best shelters to take off all the
grain. But worse objection than this
les in the fact that where corn is
hreshcd and shelled as we'll as husked
t docs not keep as well as when it is
out in the crib on the ear. There is
much dampness in the grain or new corn,
md it needs the circulation OF air which
t gets in the crib when on the cob tc
lry it out.